EXPLORE | THROUGH THE LENS
When a Friend
Defies Death
BY PETER GWIN
WALEXHONNOLD PLANNED
TO CLIMB YOSEMITE’S
EL CAPITAN WITHOUT A ROPE.
HIS FRIEND JIMMY CHIN
WOULD FILM IT. BUT FIRST
THEY HAD TO FIGURE OUT
HOW TO TALK ABOUT IT.
WHEN YOU ARE JIMMY CHIN, you make a long list of
rules for filming your friend Alex Honnold’s historic
attempt to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan without using
any ropes. First you will hire a team of world-class
climber-cinematographers to rappel beside him as he
climbs the nearly 3,000-foot granite face. No one is
allowed to whisper, sneeze, drop a lens cap, dislodge
a pebble—any of which might create the distraction
that sends him hurtling to his death. Most important,
no one is allowed to talk to Honnold about the epic
climb, at least not directly. This is to avoid putting
any pressure on him but also to keep from upsetting
his precisely calibrated mind-set, a mixture of acute
concentration, bulletproof confidence, and deep
Zen calm. Instead of using the term “free soloing,”
which means climbing without ropes or safety gear,
you use his preferred euphemism—“scrambling.”
You follow these rules knowing that any notion
of rules is contradictory to the very idea of free solo-
ing, because in this ruthlessly unforgiving sport
there really aren’t any rules, at least no written ones.
That’s much of the point. Climbing without ropes is
decidedly against all the rules, especially the rules of
mountain safety, not to mention human logic. But if
a free soloist falls, there is no denying the immutable,
unyielding rule of gravity.
Some veteran climbers say there is no if a free
soloist falls—only when. You can think of many who
have fallen to their deaths, some you knew person-
ally. And suddenly there it is: the vividly horrifying
image of your friend flailing into the void.
But wait. That’s exactly what you’re not supposed
to picture when your buddy is trying to do what
some experts say is the most daring ascent ever
attempted—what Honnold’s friend and fellow elite
34 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
EX ES Jimmy Chin [P];38.indd 34
8/30/18 3:12 PM